After being unhoused for more than three years, Kyle recently received the keys to his new apartment. In the picture above, Kyle is packing up the tent that had helped him survive. When he opened the door to his apartment for the first time, it was a moment of joy and relief.
Kyle’s move into housing isn’t the only win we’re celebrating. He’s one of 13 people who are no longer living unsheltered thanks to Partnership for Zero, a united effort to dramatically decrease homelessness in King County. Our team of Systems Advocates has been focusing resources on our first six encampments in downtown Seattle, with one encampment now fully resolved and a second one nearing resolution.
Every person who has been offered housing, has accepted housing.
Here’s a snapshot of the status of the first two encampments being resolved.
- 13 people (11 households) moved-in with a year-long lease
- 26 people are in the housing process. Among this group, people have submitted a rental application, are waiting on application approval, or are waiting for a move-in date. Everyone in this group is document ready, meaning they have the necessary forms of identification to move into housing, such as a Photo ID.
- 28 people have their identification documents and are in the process of being matched to housing
- 114 people are in the process of receiving identification.
- Total of 37 people are either moved-in or near move-in
Our Housing Command Center Field Team, a collaborative outreach effort, has engaged with 797 people living unsheltered to assess their needs and opportunities, ensuring that we can match them with services and housing as resources become available. The Field Teams will continue working outside over the holiday.
We’ve received great responses from private landlords and housing providers interested in the incentive package, with 21 units already in the pipeline from this incentive process and several more in initial conversations. We encourage you to keep sharing information about the incentive package with your networks. Interested landlords can email housing@kcrha.org
You can hear directly from Kyle and from our CEO Marc Dones on this update with the Seattle Channel’s City Inside/Out.
The path out of homelessness is challenging, but we are moving people inside through a collaborative effort. The process is beginning to go faster with each placement. Homelessness is solvable, and we’re proud of our progress so far. We will continue to connect our unhoused neighbors like Kyle to housing so they can move out of survival mode and onto the next step with our support along the way.
